Tomato sauce, coffee and red wine are notoriously difficult stains but Melbourne's coating of dust is quickly earning a spot at the top of the list.
Driveways, walls, windows, grout and many other surfaces exposed to the elements are still powdered with red grime nearly a week after the city was awash with muddy rain.
The covering is a result of a dust storm in the north-east of the state, which was driven down to Melbourne by fierce winds before falling from the sky during a deluge of rain.
The dirt closed pools, ruined loads of washing on clotheslines and left the Yarra River looking even browner than usual.
While those in Mildura deal have been dealing with dust on a regular basis, now it is Melbourne's turn to figure out how to get rid of it.
Some spent the weekend cleaning pools, washing cars and hosing things down with varying degrees of success. At Yarra Trams, cleaning crews have had a more difficult job than usual.
The rain left behind red dirt on balconies.Credit:Lachlan
"My poor car," says an anonymous reader.
Others are preferring to leave the wash-up job to nature. But those waiting for another storm strong enough to undo the mess of the last one could be waiting a while.
Melbourne is not expected to get any rain until at least the end of the week. Between five and 15 millimetres is expected to fall on Saturday with a chance of thunderstorm.
Whether that's enough to do the job is questionable. Cleaning companies across Melbourne are reporting an increase in business as customers bring in the professionals to pressure wash the muck away.
"I've had a few customers call up who tried to use their garden hose and it's not taking it away," said Adrian Macintyre from Melbourne Pressure Cleaning.
"It's not overly stubborn but for your typical garden hose it probably is."
Luke Moylan, owner of Cool Hand Luke's cleaning company, said the best thing would have been to get rid of the dirt early before it had a chance to settle.
"When you go from wet to hot, it can go pretty sticky," he said. "Then when it goes hard it can bond with the surface."
A pool blanket didn’t help. Credit:Joe, from Ivanhoe East
Customer inquries included the exclusive Commonwealth Golf Club, he said, which needed help cleaning up an outdoor area that had suddenly turned red.
"It has just the most incredible colour,"Mr Moylan said of the dust. "It was very textured, you could tell it wasn't from our area."
The dust is topsoil from drought-hit farms in the Mallee region that has been blown into the air by strong winds.
Naleen Bandara from Diamond Shine Pressure Cleaning said he had fielded plenty of calls as well.
"Its very hard to remove," he said. "You have to get the sand out before washing. A hose isn't going to help much, the dust sticks. It will take some time to get rid of it."
Tom Cowie is a journalist at The Age covering general news.
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